Texas state troopers should stick to law enforcement

NO HUNTING

Published
5:30 am CDT, Monday, July 14, 2003

A state district judge reasonably concluded that Texas law limits Texas Department of Public Safety officers to law enforcement and crime prevention. The state police are not, ruled Judge Charles Campbell, at the disposal of the Texas House speaker.

The judge ruled that House Speaker Tom Craddick overstepped his authority when he sent DPS officers in search of Democratic House members. State law takes precedence over a House rule legislators who break a quorum -- an act that is not a crime.

Even after the Killer D's were located in Oklahoma, DPS officers were kept shadowing -- and intimidating -- legislator's spouses and other family members, in one case into a Galveston hospital maternity unit. This was behavior that should have been beneath the dignity of the DPS, even before a court ruled on the matter.

The issue is not likely to arise again soon. In the ongoing special session, House Democrats remained in Austin to face defeat by the Republican majority on a congressional redistricting bill. The Senate is deeply divided on redistricting, and final passage is far from certain.

However, the ruling serves a useful purpose in establishing (unless overturned on appeal) the principal that law enforcement officers should not be hunting for Texans who have committed no crime.

DPS troopers must never be the armed wing of whatever party is in power in the Legislature. Provoked by the Democrats' flight to Oklahoma, Speaker Craddick came dangerously close to making that nightmare a reality.